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Working Paper
The sources and nature of long-term memory in the business cycle
This paper examines the stochastic properties of aggregate macroeconomic time series from the standpoint of fractionally integrated models, focusing on the persistence of economic shocks. We develop a simple macroeconomic model that exhibits long-range dependence, a consequence of aggregation in the presence of real business cycles. We then derive the relation between properties of fractionally integrated macroeconomic time series and those of microeconomic data and discuss how fiscal policy may alter the stochastic behavior of the former. To implement these results empirically, we employ a ...
Working Paper
Hedge fund holdings and stock market efficiency
We examine the relation between changes in hedge fund stock holdings and measures of informational efficiency of equity prices derived from transactions data, and find that, on average, increased hedge fund ownership leads to significant improvements in the informational efficiency of equity prices. The contribution of hedge funds to price efficiency is greater than the contributions of other types of institutional investors, such as mutual funds or banks. However, stocks held by hedge funds experienced extreme declines in price efficiency during liquidity crises, most notably in the last ...
Journal Article
The sources and nature of long-term memory in aggregate output
This article examines the stochastic properties of aggregate macroeconomic time series from the standpoint of fractionally integrated models, focusing on the persistence of economic shocks. The authors develop a simple macroeconomic model that exhibits long-range dependence, a consequence of aggregation in the presence of real business cycles. To implement these results empirically, they employ a test for fractionally integrated time series based on the Hurst-Mandelbrot rescaled range. This test is robust to short-range dependence and is applied to quarterly and annual real GDP to determine ...
Journal Article
The Gordon Gekko effect: the role of culture in the financial industry
Culture is a potent force in shaping individual and group behavior, yet it has received scant attention in the context of financial risk management and the 2007-09 financial crisis. This article presents a brief overview of the role of culture as it is seen by psychologists, sociologists, and economists, and then describes a specific framework for analyzing culture in the context of financial practices and institutions. Using this framework, the author addresses three questions: (1) what is culture? (2) does it matter? and (3) can it be changed? He illustrates the utility of this framework by ...
Working Paper
Models of the term structure of interest rates